Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Ashland
Farmers Market has many fine vendors. This
season I have bought way too much handcrafted jewelry (at affordable
prices, I might add) and pounds and pounds of gorgeous produce. One
vendor from Flats
Mentor Farm, features Asian produce. Flats
Mentor Farm has created a wonderful situation to support small
farmers of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Check out their website to
read about this wonderful organization.

I
always ask Nua, who runs the booth, for directions on how to use
these vegetables I've never seen before. She has been very helpful.
She is also happy that I am so willing to try new veggies. I've tried
Pea Vines and loved them, and Bitter Melon which is really bitter!
And most recently I've tried Fuzzy Melon. It runs from about
8 inches to 16 inches long and has a layer of fuzz on the outside of
it. When the melon is young the fuzz rubs off with your finger but
when it is more mature the skin needs to be peeled. I've only bought
young ones so far.

Nua told me it is used in soup,
even in summer! Sometimes it is peeled but I decided not to peel it
since the peel was fairly thin.

I chopped it up and simmered it
in some tomato water leftover from making ketchup. I tried to make
ketchup and used whatever second quality tomatoes I could find at the
farmers market. Problem was that we had huge rains just a few days
before and the tomatoes were extra juicy. They were also Heirloom
tomatoes rather than paste or sauce tomatoes. I learned my lesson as
I only got 3 cups of ketchup from 15 pounds of tomatoes.What
I did get, however, was a gallon of watery tomato juice. I used this
flavorful juice to simmer the fuzzy melon, which worked very well.
Fuzzy melon, without much of its own taste, takes on the taste of
whatever it is cooked with.

Here is the finished Fuzzy
Melon in Tomato Juice. I read online that it is better to cook the
whole thing rather than leave it uncut for very long. I used the
whole melon and froze lots of it in portions in the juice. I believe
it would be excellent in a crock pot stew, or in a bean pot. It is
really delicious and I highly recommend trying it if you can find
it!

About Me

I am a musician, organic gardener and improvisational cook. Following the birth of my child, I developed many symptoms and deep exhaustion. It took a decade and a half to recover using alternative treatments, diet change, and fermented foods. Out of this healing experience I developed cook books to share what worked for me. I recently opened a commercial kitchen to sell Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread products. I am always learning.